Faculty and Staff

About the Director

Robert Morris holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University and is currently Associate Professor of Criminology (with tenure) at the University of Texas at Dallas and serves on the Dallas County Criminal Justice Advisory Board (CJAB).

Morris' research surrounds contemporary issues in criminality and criminal justice. He specializes in quantitative research methods, recidivism research, life course criminology, cybercrime, delinquency, among other areas and serves as a senior research scientist for the Center of Crime and Justice Studies

His work has been published in many top-tier scholarly journals such as Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Intelligence, Criminal Justice and Behavior and the Journal of Criminal Justice.

Research Associates

Amanda Russell-Kaplan earned her Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati in 2006, where she also worked as a teaching and research assistant. Upon graduating, she returned to California to work as a crime analyst for Santa Maria Police Department.

Amanda is currently a fourth year Criminology doctoral student. Her research interests include police administration and behavior, criminal justice policy, and program evaluation.

Research Affiliates

Jennifer Reingle (Ph.D., Epidemiology - University of Florida, 2011) is currently an assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences. She studies the etiology of violence and aggression, intimate partner violence, and explaining health disparities in violence and victimization.

She has been actively involved in the development of epidemiological criminology, which is being created to examine crime through a public health lens. She has also been actively involved in a research project to evaluate differential alcohol use and associated behavioral and health outcomes among Mexican Americans living at the US-Mexico border.